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LINCOLN 

The Gift of Illinois 
to Mankind 



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LINCOLN 



THE GIFT OF ILLINOIS 
TO MANKIND 

AN ADDRESS BY 

ALEXANDER SULLIVAN 




DELIVERED AT A BANQUET GIVEN 
BY THE ILLINOIS ATHLETIC 
CLUB, ON LINCOLN'S BIRTH- 
DAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1908 






Copyright 

BY 

Alexander Sullivan 
1908 



FOREWORD 

On the twelfth day of February, 
1908 (Lincoln's birthday), at a banquet 
given in honor of the day, by the Illinois 
Athletic Club, Alexander Sullivan, of 
Chicago, delivered an address on Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The masterly grouping 
of the main features in the great presi- 
dent's life led to a request that the 
address be given as wide publicity as 
possible. 

Rev. John Cavanaugh, president of 
Notre Dame University, one of the 
most gifted speakers in the United 
States, Prof. J. C. Monaghan, now of 
Notre Dame University, formerly of 
the University of Wisconsin, and later 
of the George Washington University, 
of Washington, D. C, wrote urging 
Mr. Sullivan to give the address to the 
public. 

In compliance with these requests 
and the opinion of Professor Nathaniel 



Butler, Dean of the College of Edu- 
cation of the University of Chicago, 
the address appears in its present form. 
The letters that led to the decision to 
reprint are herewith appended. 

William Hale Thompson, 
President The Illinois Athletic Club. 

Illinois Athletic Club 
August 15, 1908 



LINCOLN 

The Gift of Illinois to Mankind 



THE subject I am to respond to is 
one of the easiest and one of the 
most difficult. 

It is easy because of the great abun- 
dance and the great diversity of themes 
which flow from the mere mention of 
Lincoln's name. His life will be 
searched in vain for a day or an event 
barren of human interest. But the 
sentiment is a difficult one, because the 
many-sided qualifications of the man, 
the great depth and breadth of his 
knowledge and achievements, and the 
exceptional manner in which his life 
is intertwined with all the events of 
his own time and with the eternal prin- 
ciples of justice and freedom, would 
m.ake it impossible in a long address 
to do more than give a mere flashlight 
vision of his marvelous career. 

Born in a log cabin in the back- 
woods of Kentucky, he came into the 
world and lived his early boy life in 

7 



a poverty almost as great as that 
which surrounded the babe of Bethle- 
hem. With indifferent mental training 
and without means, this backwoods 
boy started to seek a livelihood ; what 
he was to do or whither he was to go 
he knew not. Looking longingly about 
him, although tarrying in Indiana his 
gaze lingered on Illinois ; that great 
power of his to foresee the future led 
him to settle within her limits. 

Ungainly, without experience, with- 
out credentials, armed only with reso- 
lution, physical strength, a clear mind, 
a pure conscience and a loyal soul, he 
began to struggle for mere bread and 
shelter. 

r Lincoln, the Leader 1 

Unendorsed stranger as he was, he 
associated with no group in which he 
was not soon a favorite and the leader. 
In the debate of the country store, or 
the country schoolhouse, in the rude 
but decent and warm hearted social 
gatherings of the pioneers among 
whom his lot was cast, he was the 
brightest in repartee, the leader in 
logic, the star in humor. On the flat- 

8 



boat, without any previous experience, 
he was the one to overcome difficulties, 
to release his craft when caught in the 
river-dam, and to guide its course 
through the dangerous eddies. On one 
of these trips, after delivering his cargo 
at New Orleans, he walked about the 
streets of that interesting city and got 
his first abhorrent view of slavery. He 
saw a beautiful octoroon girl offered 
for sale from the slave block, and heard 
the coarseness, the ribaldry and the 
blasphemy of the auctioneer and of the 
bestial wretches who surrounded the 
human auction block. Could they have 
heard this raw, uncouth, unattractive, 
penniless youth, as he witnessed the 
scene, they would have laughed in 
drunken derision when he said: "If I 
ever get a chance, I will hit that hard," 
and they would have asked how such 
a creature could ever hit hard or soft 
the great power of slavery. 

But there is a spell surrounding his 
life and invading its every movement, 
which indicates a providential inten- 
tion that it should be used as a divine 
instrument for great and far-reaching 
purposes ; and one is forced to wonder 
if in the mind of Lincoln, even in those 
early days, there was not a conscious- 



ness that the Almighty had in store a 
great task and a great destiny for him. 

One cannot follow the life of Lincoln 
without the feeling that he was fore- 
ordained and created by Providence for 
a special purpose. His life from hum- 
ble hut in Kentucky to the executive 
mansion of the greatest republic on 
earth illustrates American opportunity. 
His self-denial of his own cherished 
convictions exhibited an almost super- 
human power of restraint. The guid- 
ance of conscience is manifest in every 
chapter of his history. 

This helpless lad, who said he would 
hit that hard if he ever could, became 
under Providence the power which by 
the scratch of a pen struck slavery not 
only hard, but even unto death. 

Returning to Illinois, he became a 
grocery clerkj a volunteer in the In- 
dian war, a rail splitter, a student in 
that great university lighted by the 
sun, moon and stars and covered by 
the dome of heaven, for he never had 
the opportunity of studying in a man- 
created college or university. He be- 
came a graduate of God's universal 
school. 

He soon became a lawyer and legis- 
lator, state and national. Wherever 

lo 



he went, he was the leader, his the 
master mind. At the bar he became the 
peer of Browning, Scott, Trumbull, 
David Davis and Leonard Swett. 

r The Coming Conflict 1 

The country was intensely stirred 
from ocean to ocean with the coming 
conflict, on one side of which must 
stand friends of the Union and Lib- 
erty, and on the other side the friends 
of slavery and secession. 

When the extension of slavery into 
the territories became the chief topic 
of political discussion, all eyes focused 
and all minds agreed upon Lincoln as 
the man to speak for his side of the 
controversy against that prince of de- 
baters, Stephen A. Douglas. 

The series of debates between those 
giants attracted the attention of the 
entire country and helped to mould its 
future history. 

I have said that wherever his lot was 
cast he was the leader. In those very 
debates he submitted to the greatest 
minds on his side of the controversy 
certain questions which he intended to 
propound to Mr. Douglas. His friends 

1 1 



protested that to one of them he must 
evoke an answer which would secure 
victory to Douglas in Illinois. Lincoln 
replied: "But I am playing for bigger 
game. The answer which will win Illi- 
nois for him must cost him the presi- 
dency." And it did. Despite their pro- 
tests he submitted what he had pre- 
pared. Douglas became the senator, 
Lincoln remained the private citizen ; 
but in the next advance Lincoln became 
the candidate of his united party, 
Douglas became the nominee of a frac- 
tion of his party. Lincoln was elected 
president. 

/' He triumphed without 1 
Making Enemies J 

In all his conflicts with his fellow 
men, whether in the court or on the 
stump, he was recognized as the man 
of all men who could not resort to 
subterfuge or deception — who did not 
refrain from striking hard when dis- 
cussing what he conceived to be unjust, 
dishonest, inhuman or treasonable, but 
there was something in his sweet and 
kindly nature which enabled him to 
secure the respect and affection of ad- 
versary as well as of comrade. 

12 



And wherever the "Wondrous Story" 
of our Illinois is told, it must al- 
ways be recited with pride that when 
Lincoln was first sworn in as president, 
while the air was full of rumors of as- 
sault, aye, and of assassination, there 
stood beside him a brother from Illi- 
nois who by Lincoln's matchless elo- 
quence and wonderful genius had been 
deprived of the prize for the gain of 
which his whole life had been bent. 
That brother, by his presence, notified 
those who had indulged in threats that 
no stone could be thrown, no shot fired 
at Abraham Lincoln which might not 
maim or pierce his own body. His 
presence proclaimed his guardianship 
over the person of his brother. In his 
own defeat he found solace and joy in 
the knowledge that the victor was his 
neighbor and brother, and humbly, 
loyally and fraternally he held the hat 
of that victorious brother, while the 
venerable chief justice was administer- 
ing to him the oath of office. The 
friend overcame himself as adversary. 
The patriot conquered himself as the 
partisan, and the history of Illinois, 
humanity and American patriotism was 
enriched by the spectacle of the pro- 
tecting, loving presence at Lincoln's 

13 



side of his former adversary, Stephen 
A. Douglas. 

/' His was the Master Mind 1 
in Washington J 

In the executive mansion, Lincoln 
immediately showed his greatness by 
surrounding himself with the greatest 
men in his party. Only an intellectual 
giant could be at home in such com- 
pany. Who but a giant could com- 
mand Seward, Chase, Stanton and 
their cabinet colleagues, and in their 
company as in all others, be the guide, 
the leader, the master? 

When Seward, supposed to be the 
most polished man of his party, its best 
equipped statesman, its keenest de- 
bater, its most scholarly advocate, pre- 
pared dispatches to foreign govern- 
ments with whom our relations were 
threatening, Lincoln erased a word 
here, substituted a word there, and so 
modified the work of the secretary of 
state as to remove expressions which 
might give offence, but he preserved an 
unqualified declaration of all our rights. 

The young student, who wishes to 
become an adept in expression as a 
master in style, will search in vain for 



keener or more beautiful and effective 
evidences of the use, significance and 
shading of correct language than 
those found in Lincoln's revision of 
state papers prepared by the brilliant 
Seward. 

The greatest of war ministers, so like 
Vesuvius in action, Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, was wont to thunder orders and 
roar defiance at Lincoln as he would at 
the humblest clerk in the department. 
The master knew so well the depth and 
earnestness of Stanton's patriotism 
that he could not rebuke him, and 
would not deprive the nation of his 
services. 

With that patience, almost Joblike, 
which carried him through such trials 
as few men in the world's history have 
had to bear, he would quietly with- 
draw, but before he slept, a line to 
Stanton would proclaim who was mas- 
ter, and the poor boy who fell asleep 
on picket duty, but whose patriotism 
was not questioned, was pardoned ; the 
note not requesting but directing the 
pardon was signed "A. Lincoln." 



15 



r He Mastered Details 1 

It became Lincoln's duty to grapple 
with the most difficult situation which 
has ever been presented to an Ameri- 
can president. He had to deal with the 
whole subject of the maintenance of 
the Union. It was his to see that for- 
eign conflicts were avoided, it was his 
to provide the means to equip and pay 
the army and navy, to supply the mu- 
nitions of war and to maintain civil 
government in all its ramifications. 
Upon him devolved the duty of com- 
mander in chief of the army and navy. 
How well, how skillfully, how thor- 
oughly he performed that duty you 
will be told better than any mere civil- 
ian could tell you by the distinguished 
and accomplished officer who is to 
address you to-night on "Lincoln, the 
Commander in Chief."* 

The marvel of this period of intense 
excitement and strain is that Lincoln 
mastered and participated so much in 
the detail of administration. He was 
not content to do the great things 
which devolved upon him; he also did 

* Brig. Gen. W. H. Carter, U. S. A. 

i6 



the smaller ones, and knew every 
branch of the government and its 
workings. Those who consulted him 
about the currency found him a master 
of the subject. Those who approached 
him concerning the restoration of our 
manufactures met one fully equipped 
with knowledge on that subject. 

He signed the Homestead Law, his 
predecessor had vetoed it. By this act, 
the invitation so eagerly accepted w^as 
extended to the citizens of the over- 
crowded Eastern States and to that 
vast army of immigrants seeking homes 
and freedom in the new continent who 
took possession of our western prai- 
ries and converted them into granaries 
of the world and the homes of peace, 
prosperity, patriotism and religion. 

With what wisdom he acted the world 
is familiar; for it was from the ranks 
of the brave immigrants of those days 
that there came a large portion of the 
boys in blue who saved the Union. 

It is impossible to report the work 
of any department of the government 
without tracing the guiding hand of 
Abraham Lincoln during his term of 
office as president. He was great 
enough to grasp the largest subjects. 
He was patient enough to perform and 

17 



be familiar with the most ordinary 
and commonplace details. 

He could by a joke or a story, and 
without anger, dismiss a bore. A New 
England delegation invited him to go 
to the treasury building and unfurl a 
flag which was to be presented to a 
regiment. Lincoln was kept standing 
on the treasury steps forty minutes lis- 
tening to a tedious harangue. At its 
conclusion he stepped forward and 
said: ''I will pull this flag up, if there 
is no defect in the machinery, but the 
people must keep it there." In a sen- 
tence the whole duty of the American 
people was stated. The tired president 
bowed, returned to his oflicial servitude 
and boredom was rebuked. At another 
time while Secretaries Seward and 
Chase were awaiting the president 
on a subject of national importance 
two rival delegations full of anger 
and speech, called to discuss the claims 
of their respective candidates for a 
petty offlce. Lincoln tried in vain to 
escape, then shrewdly sent down to the 
cook for a big pair of scales. He tossed 
the recommendations on either side of 
the scales, picked out the heavier one 
and said to his secretary: "Tell the 
postmaster general to appoint this fel- 

i8 



low." The insignificance of this petty 
contest, the unreasonableness of afflict- 
ing him with it, could not be shown 
more effectively. Yet he said no bitter 
word and made no enemy. 

/' Guided by the Constitution He 1 
Disregarded His Preferences J 

Without malignity to the slave- 
holder, whose surroundings in many in- 
stances accounted for his views, Lin- 
coln hated slavery as God hates sin, 
but in obedience to his oath of office 
and to the constitution of his country 
he refused to make war upon slavery 
and declared that it was his purpose 
to save the Union without violating the 
then constitutional rights of the slave- 
holders. 

The extremists railed and accused 
him of perfidy, they cited his own de- 
nunciations of slavery, they reminded 
him of his biblical quotation that a 
house divided against itself could not 
stand. But he saw and did his duty. 

With his love of peace and his love 
of liberty, he would have brought about 
the peaceful ending of slavery if the 
South could have known him then as 
it knew him later. He struck slavery, 

19 



not as soon as he would have Hked to 
do so, but when slavery itself com- 
pelled the blow to be struck. 

Thus, in his greater wisdom, he ac- 
complished what was desired, so that 
the reasonable world could not com- 
plain of his time or method of action. 
When that time came, he had to brave 
another storm of criticism. As he re- 
sisted the extremist at one period so he 
resisted the conservative at the other 
and did his duty as he saw it without 
regard to either. 

Lincoln had that self-confidence with- 
out which no man can be great. He had 
the moral strength to do what he con- 
ceived to be right, regardless of the op- 
position of friend or foe. 

r He Believed in God 1 

He made no demonstrative profes- 
sion of religion. He belonged strictly 
to no creed, but he was a God-fearing 
and a God-loving man and breathed 
this spirit in all the stages of his life. 

In his farewell address to his Spring- 
field neighbors when starting for 
Washington, he said: 

"I now leave, not knowing when or 

20 



whether ever I may return, with a task 
before me greater than that which rest- 
ed upon Washington. Without the as- 
sistance of that Divine Being who ever 
attended him, I cannot succeed. With 
that assistance^ I cannot fail. 

"Trusting in Him who can go with 
me and remain with you, and be every- 
where for good, let us confidently hope 
that all will yet be well. To His care 
commending you, as I hope in your 
prayers you will commend me, I bid you 
an affectionate farewell." 

He concluded his famous Gettysburg 
address with this sentence : 

*Tt is rather for us to be here dedi- 
cated to the great task remaining be- 
fore us, that from these honored dead 
we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they here gave the last, 
full measure of devotion, that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall 
not have died in vain, that this na- 
tion, under God, shall have a new birth 
of freedom, and that government of the 
people, by the people, for the people 
shall not perish from the earth." 

In that wonderful mastery of detail 
to which I have already referred, we 
find him on one of his visits to the war 
department discovering the debt of the 

21 



nation to a brave Massachusetts 
mother. Even as the Creator doth 
watch the sparrow's fall, so this tired, 
weary soul watched over the minutest 
details of the great struggle. Knowing 
what the great loss must have meant to 
the mother's heart he dragged himself 
from the war department back to the 
executive mansion and indicted a letter, 
which will ever be a model of exquisite 
tenderness and sweet sympathy, and 
which repeats his faith in the Divine 
Being, 

"Dear Madam: 

'*I have been shown in the files of 
the war department a statement of the 
adjutant general of Massachusetts that 
you are the mother of five sons who 
have died gloriously on the field of bat- 
tle. I feel how weak and fruitless 
must be any word of mine which 
should attempt to beguile you from the 
grief of a loss so overwhelming. But 
I cannot refrain from tendering you 
the consolation that may be found in 
the thanks of the republic they died to 
save. 

''I pray that our Heavenly Father 
may assuage the anguish of your be- 
reavement and leave you only the cher- 

27 



ished memory of the loved and lost, 
and the solemn pride that must be 
yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice 
upon the altar of freedom." 



r His Class 1 



In what class shall we place our 
Lincoln? In what eternal company 
may we expect to find him ? 

Without being or intending to be 
irreverent, it seems easy to limit those 
who are entitled to his companionship. 

The ten commandments thundered 
from Mount Sinai by Moses are the 
basis of all real religion, whatever its 
form or whatever the designation of 
its creed. 

The emancipation proclamation of 
Lincoln forms the basis of all true gov- 
ernment ; it fixes the stigma upon slav- 
ery which the ten commandments fixed 
upon sin. The author of each was 
stricken down before he reached the 
promised land. If we were to find them 
in companionship in eternity, receiving 
the affectionate caresses of Him who died 
on Calvary, the vision would not sur- 
prise us, and it were difficult to decide 
whom else we could add to the group. 

23 



If we could conceive of a state with 
a soul like a human being, and if Illi- 
nois were called before the bar of Je- 
hovah for final examination and asked 
what it had to say before judgment, we 
can imagine our State making this 
response : 

/'Illinois at the Bar ofl 
Judgment J 

"I have reclaimed an imperial domain 
from the barrenness and barbarism of 
the Indian. My rich acres have fed the 
world and furnished homes and freedom 
to the impoverished and oppressed of all 
nations. 

*'To peace I have furnished laborer, 
mechanic, merchant, financier, inventor, 
explorer, artist, teacher, jurist, doctor 
and divine. 

*'One of mine, the personification of 
modesty and purity, is one of the highest 
judicial dignitaries in the civilized world 
and adorns his exalted position — Chief 
Justice Fuller. 

"My people have dotted the land with 
factories, financial and commercial pal- 
aces, schools, colleges, universities, hos- 
pitals, homes of charity and reformation, 



24 



and temples dedicated to the worship 
of the Hving God. 

"Science, Hterature, music, all the fine 
arts, are nurtured and flourish within 
my boundaries, displacing and succeed- 
ing the filthy wigwam, the hideous tom- 
tom, the beastly war dances where lust 
and plunder were the subjects and tor- 
ture and massacre the arbiters of contro- 
versy. 

"My commercial and financial fame is 
the synonym of integrity and enter- 
prise. 

"My metropolis — Queen City of the 
lakes and the prairies — is the world's 
theme and the world's admiration. 

"In war, tens of thousands of my 
sons voluntarily poured out their rich 
blood that liberty might live. To their 
leadership I gave one, justly character- 
ized by the immortal Sherman as the 
world's greatest volunteer general, my 
native son — Logan. 

"I commissioned the persistent, in- 
vincible, silent Captain whose glory as a 
warrior was eclipsed only by his modesty, 
chivalry and generosity as a victor — 
Grant. 

"But, in submitting to final judgment, 
I waive all these achievements and gifts 



25 



to humanity; and for the forgiveness of 
all my sins of omission or commission, 
and for the eternal benediction promised 
to the good and faithful servant, I am 
content to rely on the lustre of my 
adopted and best beloved son, for whom 
all the peoples and all the ages must re- 
main my debtors forever and forever. 

"I saw his grace through his awk- 
wardness. I saw his purity through his 
poverty. I saw his genius through his 
humility. 

'Through the sad, mystic, wonderful 
windows of his soul I beheld beauty in 
the face the world called homely. 

'*I trusted him. I took him to my 
heart in life ; as in death, I gave resting 
place to his martyred ashes. I lifted him 
from step to step. My selection of him 
as my favorite son gave him first to the 
Nation, then to mankind. 

**My faith in him, under God's guid- 
ance, gave unto his face, seared by strug- 
gles with adversity, softened by sorrow, 
illumined by charity, an influence which 
carried light to the hovel and hope to the 
heart of every enslaved creature of 
God throughout the Universe — Abraham 
Lincoln." 



26 



Letter of Rev. John Cavanaugh, 
President of Notre Dame University: 

5Eniber0itp of Nctre Bamt 

Notre Dame, Indiana, July 6, 1908. 

Mr. Alexander Sullivan, 

605 Atwood Bldg., Chicago, 111. 

My dear Mr. Sullivan: I venture to 
suggest to you the desirability of circu- 
lating your admirable address on Lin- 
coln among the schoolboys of our coun- 
try. I have seldom been so impressed 
by the fitness of a discourse for educa- 
tional purposes. In the first place, I be- 
lieve your analysis has reached the es- 
sence of the man, and, therefore, our 
students will arrive at a correct esti- 
mate of one of the greatest of our 
country's sons. Secondly, a powerful 
influence, both for patriotism and for 
character, will be brought to bear on 
the lives of youth through your por- 
trait of Lincoln. Besides, the dis- 
course is a model from a literary point 
of view and I should like as many per- 
sons as possible to have the benefit 
of reading it as a matter of literary 
training. Finally, the concluding por- 
tion of it is admirably adapted for reci- 
tation in the schools. 

I wish to congratulate you on having 

27 



produced one of the best addresses 
that have come to my knowledge. 
Unless I am mistaken, it is destined 
to live. 

Yours very sincerely, 
John Cavanaugh, C. S. C, 

President. 

From Professor Nathaniel Butler, 
Dean of the College of Education of 
the University of Chicago. 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKBFELLHR 

The Colleg:e of Education 
Office of the Dean 

July 27, 1908. 

Mr. Alexander Sullivan, 

605 Atwood Bldg., Chicago. 
My dear Mr. Sullivan: I have read 
every word of your Lincoln address 
with intense interest. There is not a 
sentence that does not hold the atten- 
tion closely, and no part of the address 
that does not "move on.'' You have 
introduced some very fine touches re- 
garding Stephen A. Douglas, and your 
analysis of Lincoln's character is at 
once a mental photograph, and at the 
same time a picture with your own 
individual touches. You have been 

28 



wonderfully successful in avoiding the 
traditional biographical style, and 
again, you have done a thing most 
difficult, namely, you have combined 
the colloquial style of address with the 
dignity of oration, and all of this find 
suitable finish in the closing paragraph. 
I thank you very much for permit- 
ting me to read the address. 

Sincerely yours, 
Nathaniel Butler. 

Prof. J. C. Monaghan's letter: 

Kotre name 5aniber^itp 

July 4i 1908. 

Mr. Alexander Sullivan, 

Chicago, Ills. 
Dear Mr. Sullivan: I have found 
great pleasure in reading your master- 
ly address on Lincoln, delivered before 
the Illinois Athletic Club, February 12, 
1908. I am writing to ask you to ar- 
range said address in pamphlet form 
for as wide publication as possible. 
The oration should be in every home 
in the country. It epitomizes Lincoln's 
life, it picks out and puts before our 
boys the best parts of the greatest, if 
not the sublimest, life in all our his- 
tory, not excepting Washington. 

29 



It would be wicked to pass such a 
piece of work over to the annalists for 
the files ; it should be sent out as an 
inspiration to our boys. I have read it 
a dozen times, each time with profit, and 
I am to teach my boy of fourteen to 
declaim a large part of it. 

Sincerely yours, 

J. C. MONAGHAN. 



3° 



PRESS NOTICES 

The treatment of the great banquet, 
at which Mr. Sullivan's address was 
delivered, by the Chicago daily press, 
may be judged by the following ex- 
tracts : The Inter Ocean said : 

"The New Illinois Athletic Club cel- 
ebrated its first Lincoln's birthday an- 
niversary- with a military banquet last 
night. Among the guests were officers 
from the regular army and the Illinois 
National Guard. The glitter of their 
uniforms amid the somber evening 
dress of the civilians made the ballroom 
a scene of unusual splendor. 

*Tn the banquet hall more than lOO 
tables were spread, and at each plate 
waved a tiny silk American flag. A 
large flag with Lincoln's picture as a 
centerpiece formed the background for 
the speaker's table, at which uniformed 
officers and other guests of honor sat. 
General W. H. Carter, Commander of 
the Department of the Lakes, represented 
the regular army, responding to the 
toast, 'Lincoln, the Commander-in- 
Chief.' General Edward C. Young of 
the Illinois National Guard, represented 

31 



the citizen soldiery and responded to 
'The National Guard of the Republic' 
Dr. James B. McFatrich spoke on 'Lin- 
coln, the Humble Man,' and Attorney 
Alexander Sullivan delivered the address 
of the evening, 'Lincoln, the Gift of 
Illinois to Mankind.' 

/'Robert Lincoln Sends 1 
Regrets J 

"Toastmaster William Hale Thomp- 
son read a letter of regret from Robert 
T. Lincoln, son of the martyred presi- 
dent, in which he expressed his regret at 
being unable to attend because of a feel- 
ing that it was better that he remain ab- 
sent from affairs where the name of his 
illustrious father was being honored." 

The Tribune, following its report of 
Mr. Sullivan's speech, said : 

"As the speaker resumed his seat 
every one of the little silken flags that 
adorned the tables was seized and waved 
in the air, while the soldiers forgot their 
stiff parade uniforms and gold lace to 
throw their arms about in the air and 
cheer as loudly as their lungs would per- 
mit." 



.12 



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